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Monthly Archives: January 2013

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Dragon Gate has announced the shows for their February tour entitle Truth Gate. The tour started on January 30th with a show in Kaogshima. The tour continued today in Kumamoto and will run through Feburary 17 in Mie. Of the announced shows, four will be bigger shows with two on Gaora TV for Dragon Gate Infinity. Here are the cards for the bigger shows as they stand.

Before anyone asks about why Stalker Ichikawa is having finale match in the month of February, he typically does this every year. I don’t expect a retirement from him.

Cyber Kong continues his Road to Unit Affiliation series teaming with Team Veteran Returns.

Mochizuki and Kanda have been feuding for some time due to the issues stemming from last year when Team Veteran wanted to end The Jimmys.

I have a feeling that whoever wins the Triangle Gate, may show who is getting sent packing during the Captain’s fall match. This will also be Mr. Pii Pii’s first appearance in Dragon Gate under that name

Cyber Kong vs Stalker will be an enjoyable comedy match. Do not expect anything more.

TakaYama vs. World-1 International should be interesting. Glad to see Shachihoko BOY continue to be in the mix after the Open The Triangle Gate win.

MochiFujii is going for the 6th defense, they already set the record during the Kobe Sambo hall match on January 27 by beating Genki Horiguchi H.A.Gee.Mee!! and Jimmy Kanda. Naruki Doi and Ricochet have been impressive of late so this should be a close match.

The Jimmys vs Mad Blankey match was talked about during my blog about Tanizaki winning his name back. No idea who would be booted. As I said earlier, I expect the Triangle Gate match in Hakata Star Lanes to give an idea.

Kanda challenging CIMA should be good but I doubt it will be a title change. This is match two in CIMA’s title match every month campaign for 2013.

2/15/2013 Hyogo, Kobe Sambo Hall No card announced but this will be an Infinity taping.

New Japan Pro-Wrestling announced that Taichi Ishikari will miss all the shows scheduled throughout the month of February due to suffering a injury to his left knee following a car accident. Because of the injury, NJPW has announced that KAIENTAI DOJO’s Hiro Tonai will be taking Taichi’s place for the month.

All Japan Pro-Wrestling recently conducted their annual “rookie audition” and announced that they have signed 3 young talents to begin training for them. This is only the beginning for the three chosen guys who will move into the AJPW dorms and begin their road to their eventual debuts. The three wrestlers are listed below with a little information about each.

石坂 ブライアン Brian Ishizaka:

Born: August 20, 1989

Size: 166cm / 75kg

From: Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

Extra Info: trained in the Animal Hamaguchi Gym for 4 years. His previous athletic training is in Basketball and Judo. [Pictured Left]

池宮 奏 Sou Ikemiya

Born: March 28, 1992

Size: 175cm / 83kg

From: Niigata Prefecture, Japan

Extra Info: Sou is noted at being a multi-sport athlete. [Pictured Middle]

西山 翔貴 Shouki Nishiyama

Born: September 23, 1994

Size: 175cm / 70kg

From: Mie Prefecture, Japan

Extra Info: His previous athletic training is in Rugby and Judo. [Pictured Right]

Starting on the Tuesday January 22 Arena Mexico show Terrible defeated form CMLL Lightweight Champion Rush to retain the CMLL World Heavyweight title. To determine the two men to face off in a decision match for the vacated CMLL Lightweight Title, Rey Escorpion and Volador Jr. outlasted Sagrado, Felino, Atlantis, Delta, Mephisto, Morphosis, Diamante, Blue Panther, Mr. Aguila, Stuka, Maximo, Psicosis, La Mascara and Euforia.

Sunday January 27 was the return to the Arena Coliseo in Mexico City. Two things happened of note. After winning a minis trios match, the rudo team of Demus 3:16. Pequeno Violencia and Pequeno Warrior declared themselves as Los Pequeno Temerarios. After winning the fall and match for the tecnicos Valiente challenged Polvora to put up his CMLL Welterweight Title. Polvora accepted the challenge and the match will happen some time in the next few weeks.

Monday January 28 had a bigger show in Arena Puebla. To start off, Estrellita had her first defense of her Mexican National Women’s title. She beat Princesa Sugheit to retain by winning the second and third falls. In the main event Thunder the wrestler who has been promoted over the last few weeks debuted. The masked Australian teamed with La Masara and Rush to take on the team of Averno, Mephisto and Terrible. Thunder beat Terrible to win the match after a choke slam in the third fall. Thunder was previously named as Thunder Bird but he was renamed. I guess Konnan will attribute this due to the fact Tijuana’s Thunderbird is looking on returning to the ring.

Tuesday January 29 was another weekly show in Arena Mexico. Rey Escorpion beat Volador Jr. to become the new CMLL Lightweight Champion. He beat Volador with the his Aguijon Mortal which rather than the double underhook piledriver like posted during FantasticaMania’s results is a package piledriver. By winning the title now all three Revolucionarios are champions in CMLL with Polvora being the World Welterweight champion and Dragon Rojo Jr. holding the World Middleweight title. After Mr. Niebla was disqualified in the third and final fall for unmasking La Sombra, it was announced they will face off in a single match on next Tuesday’s Arena Mexico show.

On Osaka Pro-Wrestling’s Osaka Holiday Paradise show from Nasci Hall on January 27 long-time Osaka wrestler and current vice president announced that on their February 24th show in IMP Hall Osaka will start a working agreement with Dragon Gate. The two promotions have worked together in the past with a feud between the two promotions during 2010 in which Tigers Mask (not to be confused with Tiger Mask) won the Open The Brave Gate title and held it for several months. Currently Osaka Pro and Dragon Gate share HUB who is a storied member of Osaka Pro under five different names (he statered as Super Demekin then went rudo as Goa then returned to sekigun as Super Dolphin (not to be confused with his mentor Super Delfin) and then as ZERO before leaving Osaka in 2008 to join Super Delfin’s Okinawa Pro as Kaijin Habu Okoto before returning in late 2012 as a freelancer under the name of HUB.

The first interaction of the two promotions will be on the February 24th IMP show. Masato Yoshino and Cyber Kong will be part of a six-man tag match. Yoshino will team with Tsubasa and Zeus to take on Kong who will team with Kuuga and Quiet Storm. Tsubasa trained with Toryumon Gym along with the first class of CIMA, SUWA, Don Fujii, Dragon Kid and Magnum TOKYO before going to Osaka Pro rather than Toryumon Japan. Of late, Tsubasa is a part-timer. Kuuga debuted in 2006 for Osaka Pro as Asain Cooger before joining the rudo unit JOKER under the name of Kuuga. Zeus is not Tony Lister but rather a Japanese strong man that debuted in Osaka Pro in 2006. Quiet Storm is an American who trained with Mikey Whipwreck and participated in early Ring of Honor shows. Since the mid 2000’s he has spent considerable time in Japan with tours for Michinoku Pro, Kaientai Dojo and now full-time in Osaka as a member of JOKER.

Also on the IMP Hall show on February 24th will be the debut of the first Osaka Pro rookie in a few years as Katsumi Oribe will take on Spider J. In the main event Seikigun will take on Glare in a losing unit dissolution elimination match. Billyken Kid, Tigers Mask, Kazuaki Mihara and Naoki Setoguchi will represent Seikigun. Daisuke Harada, Tadasuke, HAYATA and Black Buffalo will represent Glare.

Earlier today, Mr. Quu Quu Toyonaka Dolphin beat Naoki Tanisaki to win back his name (the name he lost at Dangerous Gate.) in Hyogo as apart of Dangerous Gate. The match was initally won by Tanisaki but only because of a salt attack by Mondai Ryu. The match was restarted and Quu Quu won with his Casanova knee strike. Because of this Quu Quu won back the Naoki Tanizaki name and the other would have a new name. Playing off of Dangerous Gate, the once again Tanizaki said that the now former Tanisaki looked like a penguin who make a piiiii piiii sound when they cry and being a Tomakoai native he would be known as Mr. Pii Pii Tomakomai Penguin playing off the naming of Quu Quu.

After this a rematch was declared but it would be with the loser leaves Dragon Gate. The Jimmys and Mad Blankey both ran in and had a brawl. General Manager (and former wrestler/fisherman/baker/referee) Takayuki Yagi stepped in and declared that at the next Wakayama show titled Memorial Gate on February 11, Tanizaki and Tomakomai will captain teams that will face in a captain’s fall elimination match in which the losing captain would be kicked out of Dragon Gate. Tanizaki will captain three other members of the Jimmys (Ryo Jimmy Saito, Genki Horiguchi H.A.Gee.Mee!! and Jimmy Susumu) to take on Tomakomai’s Mad Blankey team with Akira Tozawa, BxB Hulk and Kzy.

Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre has been releasing promos for their new wrestler “Thunder Bird” for weeks. As stated in an earlier post, Thunder Bird will debut in February though the date has not been announced. Not much is known about him other than he has a look similar to Marco Corelone despite the lack of forearm tattoos and having a distinct accent.

However, yesterday at CMLL’s January 25th Arena Mexico show, Thunder Bird made an appearance. This only adds to the mysterious feel that CMLL has been trying to create all this time.